iphone does: an evening at the ballpark

Jared & I rolled out of bed at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday & were both on the way to work before the sun had really peeked over the building across the street. It was certainly an early enough morning that I was running into walls at work because I don't really dooooo mornings.

But all's well that ends at a baseball game, right? We joined up with friends for wings (don't tell my diet) & a breezy evening at the park that ended with surprise fireworks. It felt like a mini kickoff to summer. Early morning events, barbeque, enough of an evening breeze that a husbandly arm around the shoulders is both sweet & necessary.

Virginia, even your mosquitoes & humidity won't get to us. It's going to be a lovely summer.

916 days + life right now

April 23rd was our 2.5 year "anniversary" (... Which we probably would never remember except that my birthday is 12 days before our anniversary & I never forget my half-birthday.) My mind gets a little melty when I try to fathom that it's been over two years since our wedding day. But I also get a little tickled at how much we are still figuring out. He's still learning to wipe the counter down. I'm still learning to use a coaster. We're both still learning to just go ahead & wash the dishes right then.

The rhythms of this marriage thing are the sweetest beat. Some, we've fallen into so easily. Rhythms that I know we'll still be tapping our feet to when we're 90 years old & sitting on the front porch swing. There's still a lot of rhythms to learn. So many quirks to adjust to. So many little things that, when remembered, speak LOVE in a big booming voice. I certainly don't think that we're supposed to be professionals at this married thing after 2.5 years of mawiage. It's a drop in the pond, really.

But at 915 days in, I know that he's going to replace the tooth brushes because he's the germaphobe. & he knows that I'm always going to keep chocolate & pita chips in supply for him, even when I'm on a diet. He knows that silence is required when I'm writing, & I know that he's pretty much always going to fall asleep when reading. & most importantly, we both know that when La Vie en Rose plays, we stop what we're doing & dance. We have learned. We are learning. & there is so much love growing in our souls & weaving into the fabric of our beings in between.

SAP ATTACK! I could go on, or I could tell you more about our week?

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I've officially lost 10 lbs, which is about 8 lbs. away from my target weight, heyooooo! Event season is busy at work, & my nose has already been burnt once. Jared is nearing the end of this semester with gold stars & A+++'s. We've enjoyed every moment of watching Cardinals games on MLBtv (thanks, dad!) & don't look now, but I totally have Jared hooked on Grey's Anatomy ("Does he die?" "Yes." "Does she die?" "Yes.")  We've declared war on the ants that think they own this apartment. One roach sighting (& subsequent stomping) induced a full-blown kitchen scrub down. I ordered an entire box of coconut water through Amazon & refuse to admit how many I've already downed.

I'm hoping to be able to get some more outfit photos up in here... Soon. I feel like I've fallen out of the blogging groove as April has once again brought in the event season at work, which has once again slapped me across the face. So, pardon my less-than-graceful blogging consistency this month. I'm on it.

scenes from the weekend

 

 

Pictured are things like: 
-Taking advantage of Target's seductive sales in the form of a new kitchen rugs
-Welcoming back sunsets that arrive after 6:00 p.m. when we're both home to see our family room flooded with bright light
-Enjoying our friends playing a fantastic show at the coffee shop around the corner... with other lovely friends who have beautiful smiles & adventure with us down to Granby St. to check out a block party that had already ended
-A perfect sunset on the walk home last night
-Selfies in the car as we spent our day sneaking around a rainy city while everyone else worked & we pretended that the Earth actually WANTED to spend its special day to be windy & very un-April-like
-But also, please take note, very briefly, that I... Kelsey Bethune... NAILED the winged eyeliner look for the first time in ever. Just for Earth Day. Or something.

It's Monday... & Tuesdays are my Monday at work. So, goodnight, weekend. See ya in just another few days.

virginia in the springtime

 

We spent Sunday afternoon in Williamsburg with Amelia & Andrew, our favorite halfway point between Richmond & Norfolk. Amelia & I pretty much floated around all afternoon, soaking in the spring blooms. It was completely breathtaking. Top that off with Aromas coffee, old bookstores for the boys & an impromptu street fair (complete with man-in-kilt-playing-didgeridoo) & it was a pretty splendid spring afternoon.

It's not every year that we get spring here in Southern Virginia... We typically jump straight from sad, rainy winter to HOT. Hot & muggy. So, pardon an entire post of spring blooms & floral joy - I'll just be over here tossing dogwood petals into the air.

diy - rifle paper co. inspired spring wreath

It's Thursday night & I can already tell you that the highlight of my week was Rifle Paper Co. iPhone cases making their big, long awaited debut via Cup of Jo's blog. Anna Rifle Bond & her designs can do no wrong - It's all solid gold!

Amelia & I decided to tackle a Rifle Paper Co. inspired wreath to help welcome spring to our homes. We followed the same idea as my Valentine's Day wreath... Keeping it simple with felt! With Amelia as my hand model & creative director, we documented our process. Step-by-step directions can be found at the bottom!

 

 

 

supplies:

felt

hot glue gun

multi-purpose wire

wire cutters

scissors

pencil (for tracing)

1. Pick out your favorite illustration - We LOVE the Spring Citrus Floral Print!

2. Once you have your inspiration piece picked, you can purchase your felt colors based on the print's elements.

3. Pick out the wreath elements that you want to feature from the Rifle Paper Co. design & label the felt per element. This helped us streamline our efforts & kept us from getting confused about which color was going where!

4. Measure your wire, shape & twist! We used approximately 3 ft. of wire. & picked an oval shape.

5. Start with your base element - Our base element was the large green leaf. Cut out your shape & make sure you have enough to cover the entire wire frame. 

6. To complete our large leaves & fruits, we used two colors to mimic the inspiration print. Consider this as you plan your felt colors & wreath elements!

7. Repeat this process for the other objects on the wreath! We freehanded the floral & fruit designs, cut them out & used the glue gun to assemble each piece.

8. Use your base elements to create any bunches featured in the photo - The wire we used is also pliable enough that you could attach separate pieces to create dimension. 

9. Assemble your wreath from the base up!

10. We used the back of the wreath to attach some of the bunches of buds.

11. Clean up those icky hot glue strings... Then step back & enjoy your Rifle Paper Co. inspired wreath for this beautiful spring!

This was certainly a little bit more involved than cutting out hearts, so we'd recommend breaking up the process over a few nights of Arrested Development on Netflix (because it's time to refresh before the new season/movie debut!). If you make a wreath, please post a picture on instagram or leave a link in the comments - We'd LOVE to see!

Thanks for being our inspiration, Rifle Paper Co.!